Fabric care compositions, including fabric softening compositions, can be used during the rinse cycle or drying cycle of a typical laundry process to provide improved softness and freshness to the fabrics being laundered. If employed during the rinse cycle, the fabric care compositions are typically in the form of liquid compositions. If employed during the drying cycle, the fabric care compositions are typically in the form of solid or semi-solid compositions incorporated onto a nonwoven substrate.
Most common fabric care compositions can provide different degree of benefits such as fabric softening, fabric lubrication, fabric relaxation, wrinkle reduction, ease of ironing, abrasion resistance, fabric smoothing, static reduction and perfuming. Common fabric care materials in fabric care compositions are alkyl-modified quaternary ammonium compounds (also known as “alkyl quats”) such as diester quaternary ammonium compounds (DEQA); polyquaternary ammonium compounds; triethanolamine esterified with carboxylic acid and quaternized (also known as “esterquat”); amino esterquats; cationic diesters; betaine esters; betaines. Additional actives include silicones or silicone emulsions comprising aminosilicones, cationic silicones, quat/silicone mixtures; functionalized PDMS. Certain disadvantages are associated with fabrics treated with these actives, including a soft but greasy feel, reduced water absorbency, yellowing upon aging. In addition, some of these actives do not have the desirable profiles in the area of biodegradability and toxicity.
In developing fabric care compositions, the primary focus is on the proper functions of the actives such that the treated fabrics exhibit the desired fabric care benefits. Through-the-rinse applications pose additional challenges in the area of effective deposition from the rinse medium to the fabrics. In some cases, it is found that fabric care actives having cationic moieties and long alkyl chains (e.g., alkyl quats) are very sensitive to certain detergent components (e.g., anionic surfactant) carried over from the wash cycle into the rinse cycle. It is hypothesized that the anionic detergent components may interact with the cationic fabric care actives, forming cationic-anionic complexes that may precipitate out of the rinse medium and/or neutralize the softening actives, the former reduces deposition onto fabrics and the latter reduces effectiveness of the fabric care actives.
Fabric care compositions comprising actives derived from plant/agricultural sources have been disclosed. Examples of naturally derived fabric care actives include sugar and vegetable oil derivatives. Fabric care actives derived from these natural sources are believed to be more environmentally friendly and more cost effective than petroleum derived fabric care actives, such as alkyl quats, ester quats, silicones. To ensure effective deposition onto fabrics, these fabric care actives may be used in combination with other co-actives or deposition agents. Exemplary compositions comprising naturally derived fabric care actives and deposition aids are disclosed in GB 1 601 359; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,447,643; 5,498,350; 6,410,501; 6,436,896; 6,514,931; WO 98/16538; WO 01/034315; and WO 98/16538.
There is a continuing need to improve fabric care compositions to deliver efficient deposition and enhanced fabric care benefits of. There is also a continuing need to develop fabric care compositions especially for laundry applications requiring deposition during the wash cycle and/or the rinse cycle. There is a further need to develop fabric care composition comprising effective deposition agents suitable for the plants based fabric care actives.